[5] A village post office noted as "Pride Church" operated briefly in Amelia County in the early 1820s, although it is not certain that it referred to the same community.

[4] Nevertheless it hosted several prominent guest preachers: Itinerant revivalist Francis Asbury visited in 1794, one of the first of a number of his ministry endeavors in and around Amelia County;[8] and a sermon described by an eyewitness as "the finest specimen of pulpit oratory he had ever heard" was delivered at Pride's Church in the 1840s by Presbyterian minister, educator, and Confederate chaplain Moses Drury Hoge,[9] a grandson of minister, educator, and abolitionist Moses Hoge.

An establishment called Gill's Mill operated on Sayler's Creek just to the west of Pride's Church;[12] a community dubbed Gill's Store was listed in the late 1800s, receiving mail from the post office in Deatonville,[13] just north of the location of Pride's Church and Craddock's Store.

Gills lies near the route[15][16] taken by Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his army in their retreat during the final days of the Civil War.

[12] The two sides met and clashed in their last major battle, April 6, 1865, just over a mile west of modern-day Gills at Sayler's Creek, on the border of Amelia and Prince Edward counties.